Shrewsbury to Newport Canal

Shrewsbury Canal
Telford's 1796 cast-iron aqueduct at Longdon-on-Tern
Specifications
Maximum boat length	81 ft 0 in (24.69 m) (Locks could hold four 20-ft tub-boats)
Maximum boat beam	7 ft 0 in (2.13 m) (originally 6 ft 7 in or 2.01 m) (Only Eyton locks were widened)
Locks	34 (originally 11) (plus Trench inclined plane)
Status	Early stages of restoration
Navigation authority	None
History
Original owner	Shrewsbury Canal Company
Principal engineer	Josiah Clowes / Thomas Telford
Date of act	1793
Date of first use	1794
Date completed	1797
Date closed	1944
Geography
Start point	Norbury Junction (originally Trench) (Newport Branch opened 1835, connecting canal to national network)
End point	Shrewsbury
Branch(es)	Newport Branch, Humber Branch
Connects to	Shropshire Union Canal, Shropshire Canal, Donnington Wood Canal

The Shrewsbury Canal (or Shrewsbury and Newport Canal) was a canal in Shropshire, England. Authorised in 1793, the main line from Trench to Shrewsbury was fully open by 1797, but it remained isolated from the rest of the canal network until 1835, when the Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal built the Newport Branch from Norbury Junction to a new junction with the Shrewsbury Canal at Wappenshall. After ownership passed to a series of railway companies, the canal was officially abandoned in 1944; many sections have disappeared, though some bridges and other structures can still be found. There is an active campaign to preserve the remnants of the canal and to restore the Norbury to Shrewsbury line to navigation.

From 1768 several small canals were built in the area of what is now Telford. These canals carried tub boats. The first of these was the Donnington Wood Canal which opened in 1768, to be followed by the Wombridge Canal and the Ketley Canal, both opened in 1788, and the Shropshire Canal, which opened in 1791. The network linked Lilleshall and Pave Lane in the north to Coalbrookdale and Coalport in the south. Following a survey of the route by George Young from Worcester in 1792, an Act of Parliament was obtained in 1793 which authorised the creation of a canal to link the town of Shrewsbury with the east Shropshire canal network serving coal mines and ironworks around Oakengates, Ketley, Donnington Wood and Trench, nowadays part of the new town of Telford. The act authorised the raising of £50,000 in shares, and an additional £20,000 if necessary. This canal became the Shrewsbury Canal, and incorporated one mile and 88 yards (1.69 km) of the Wombridge Canal, which were purchased for £840 from William Reynolds to provide access to the Donnington Wood Canal and the Shropshire Canal.